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Circumcision and HIV transmission

Posted by HIM on Friday January 8th, 2010

Is circumcision effective against the spread of HIV? Two recent studies provide contradictory results. One study of about 2,000 gay men in Peru – most of whom were uncircumcised – found that circumcised men who had unprotected anal sex were slightly less likely to become infected with HIV.

A little more than half of the participants said they were willing to be circumcised in order to participate in a further study to measure the effectiveness of circumcision against HIV transmission. In the meantime, the researchers say the numbers of the first study are too small to draw any definite conclusions. For more information go to: http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/ 6F898D49-BF01-4E6E-AFAC-2C3D274D91EB.asp

In a second study in Sidney, Australia, researchers found that circumcision is not effective against the spread of HIV. In the Australian study, researchers followed the lives of about 2,400 gay men who were HIV-negative in 2001. Of these, about 2/3 were uncircumcised. By 2006, researchers found that some of the men had acquired HIV.

The researchers found that the incidence of HIV infection was about the same in both circumcised and uncircumcised men. They also found that infection rates were the same when they looked at factors like age, other sexually transmitted infections, or whether the participants were tops or bottoms.

They concluded that circumcision is unlikely to effectively prevent HIV infection in Australian gay men. For more information about this study go to: http://www.aidsmap.com/en/news/ 6F898D49-BF01-4E6E-AFAC-2C3D274D91EB.asp

— Charles Rani

Add Your Comment

Friday June 18th, 2010 by Anonymous

I agree with the previous poster's last comment. It sets a VERY DANGEROUS precedence if men (not just gay men) are lead to believe that being circumcised offers any level of "protection" against HIV infection. The only time it should ever be considered a factor is when a condom breaks NOT as a method of having "safer" unprotected sex, which is exactly how I think it may be interpreted.

The recent article in Xtra West - "HIV-positive gay man acquitted" noted:

"...Fenlon ruled the risk of transmission in this case, placed by expert testimony at 4 in 10,000 per sexual act.."

This, again, is a "slippery slope" in the fight against HIV transmission by making it seem like a 0.4% chance of HIV transmission (estimated risk for top) is rather small, but given the number of times it happens to some people I know, the risk is greatly increased.

When I was depressed with low self-esteem, my brain seemed to reason that the 5 minutes of "ecstacy" was worth the "miniscule" risk. To make matters worse, when I mentioned the slip-up to a friend, he asked if I was the top (which I was) and then said "Don't worry about if you were the top."

All this does is re-inforce the falsehood that being a top during unprotected sex is "low risk" which is WRONG and, in fact, is only slightly lower risk (6.5 in 10000) than being a bottom during unprotected sex (50 in 10000). See http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5402a1.htm#tab1

Tuesday June 15th, 2010 by Dave

Studies not needed, just look to the USA where 90+% of men are circumcised. They have the highest HIV rate in the world. If circumcision offered any protection, the rate should be lower than in Europe which it is not. Can we have a statistic of what percentage of Gay men in Canada who've died of aids were circumcised?? If its more than a few percent, I'd say this is useless and dangerous information.

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